It’s official — the largest volcano in the world is named after the Aggies

You may recall the announcement, last summer, of the discovery of a subsea volcano 100s of miles across in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Japan.

It dwarfs other volcanoes on Earth. In fact it may be the second largest volcano in the solar system, second only to Olympus Mons on Mars. The find was led by William Sager, a longtime Texas A&M University professor who is now at the University of Houston. He nicknamed the feature Tamu Massif.

“I just received word from the US Board on Geographic Names that they have accepted the name,” Sager told me.

The Tamu Massif is located within the Shatsky rise. (ODP)

The volcano, the size of New Mexico, is a couple of miles beneath the ocean surface. From observations, Sager said it appears the volcano never rose above the surface, even during its most recent eruption some 145 million years ago.

Fortunately, the volcano is almost certainly dead. “As much as we know that anything’s dead, this looks dead,” Sager said last summer.